Ethical Sensitivity, Psychological Resilience, and Compassion Fatigue among Healthcare Workers in a Psychiatric Hospital in Türkiye: A Cross-Sectional Study.

AIM: This study assessed ethical sensitivity, psychological resilience, and compassion fatigue among healthcare workers at a psychiatric hospital in Türkiye and examined the associations among these variables.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study included 135 healthcare workers at a psychiatric hospital. Data were collected between May 27 and June 27, 2025, using the Descriptive Information Form, the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (MSQ), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and the Compassion Fatigue-Short Scale (CF-SS). The Mann-Whitney U test, independent-samples t-test, Kruskal-Wallis test, one-way ANOVA, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient analysis were used to analyze the data. The study was reported in accordance with the STROBE guidelines.

RESULTS

The mean age of the healthcare workers was 35.95 ± 8.85 years. The mean total scores were 88.15 ± 19.53 for the MSQ, 18.47 ± 2.63 for the BRS, and 25.76 ± 6.81 for the CF-SS. Ethical sensitivity differed significantly by profession, weekly working hours, and ethics-related education; psychological resilience differed significantly by profession, educational level, and weekly working hours; and compassion fatigue differed significantly by sex, profession, and income status (p < 0.05). Weak negative correlations were found between resilience and scores on the Beneficence and Conflict subscales of the MSQ (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

No significant correlations were identified among the total scores of ethical sensitivity, psychological resilience, and compassion fatigue. Practice-oriented in-service training may help strengthen ethical sensitivity and psychological resilience. Regular reflective meetings may also provide healthcare workers, particularly psychiatric nurses, with opportunities to discuss challenging clinical experiences.